Evan Vitale Consulting

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

9 Reasons Why Business Owners Hate the Holidays – Huffington Post

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Run a small business? Then you’re keeping a big secret. C’mon… fess up. It’s about the holidays. Sure, December is a festive, wonderful, joyous month. You’re not completely insensitive to the meaning of the season. You can party with the best, soak up the goodwill and wipe away a tear when Will Ferrell gets everyone in New York to sing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. You love Christmas time! At least that’s what you tell everyone. But deep down inside, behind that smile plastered on your face and your wishes of “peace on earth” and “happy holidays” there’s something else you’re feeling. It’s panic. For a business owner, the holidays churn up fears and bring out the worst of your financial anxieties. You know this is true. And you know the reasons why.

Holiday season means bonus, raise and evaluation time. Santa Clause isn’t the only one putting something extra in everyone’s stocking. Each year at this time, like most business owners, you probably conduct performance reviews and give out raises. You may do a special payroll run of holiday bonuses as an annual thank you to your employees (while cursing yourself for starting this tradition a decade ago). Of course you value your employees. But now you’re watching the money go right out the door along with the commitments of more money that you will be paying next year and it’s all you can do to hold down that eggnog.

Holiday season means working too little. Hello? Anyone there? Everyone seems to be out of the office around the second half of December. And even when they’re in the office, they’re not all there. Nothing’s getting done. People are distracted with good tidings of joy (and getting the best online deals possible during work hours). The fact is that the week between Christmas and New Year’s means everything shuts down. You can’t get your own people to do a solid eight-hour day. And you can’t get hold of your customers or suppliers either. Deals don’t get closed, calls don’t get answered and everyone tells you “let’s touch base after the holidays.” Ugh. It takes a good two weeks into the new year just to get things back to where they were before Thanksgiving. And that’s because there’s always one key buyer who takes his holiday the week after New Years… who does that??? The holiday slowdown is a costly one.

Holiday season means working too much. Sure, some of us find ourselves slowing down to a crawl during this time of year. But for many other business owners, particularly those in retail, this is the make or break season for their business. So the holidays means tons of extra hours, tons of extra foot traffic and tons of extra problems: employees calling out sick, customers shoplifting, returns and exchanges, late hours, long days and then it’s all followed by a huge drop-off once December 25th is over. Then there’s the adding up of sales and praying to the birthday boy (it’s all about Him this month, isn’t it?) that you came out ahead this critical holiday season. It’s nerve-wracking and exhausting. And more than a little scary.

Holiday season means customer gifts. As if delivering a good, quality product or service isn’t enough now you must give gifts. This means sending cards and chocolates and fruit baskets to customers and friends of the business across the country. You know you’re going to forget someone and make them angry. Or you’ll address that one card to that one wrong person who will take offense because he practices some obscure religion, doesn’t believe in Santa and cuts off your business because you were so insensitive. Oh, and besides the cost of the items you’re sending (6 pieces of Godiva chocolate for $25???) there’s the internal cost from the time it takes to put together the list, print out the labels, add in special notes, stuff, stamp and mail. Why are we doing this?

Holiday season means holiday parties. Which means more time simply not doing work. And of course there are those embarrassing things that only happen at holiday parties (she did that? To who? On top of what?) which poisons relationships amongst your key people for years. And because it’s 2014 you’ve always got the potential liability hanging over your head as the company who provided that last gin and tonic to the guy who got in his car and drove over a puppy on the way home. Basically, there is no real benefit for the employer at the holiday party. But it’s the holidays, so you got to do it. Sleigh bells and all that…

Holiday season means the kids are home from school. Which means after working all day we can reward ourselves by coming home to a house littered with sneakers, Gatorade bottles and trash left over by our wonderful children from their carefree days of doing nothing but watching Sponge Bob, hanging out with their friends and thoroughly trashing the house. And if you have teenage or college kids you can enjoy the sounds of their festivities going on well into the night when you’re trying to get to sleep at a normal time because you still have a job to go in the morning.

Holiday season means the inability to make tough decisions. You can’t fire someone during the holidays. You can’t be a tough negotiator during this time of year. You can’t be the Grinch, the Scrooge the Angry Elf who attacked Will Ferrell before Will Ferrell gets everyone in New York to sing Santa Claus is Coming To Town. You have to be more generous, more giving and more caring. Which means all the things that you do that makes you a formidable and successful business owner (i.e. a heartless bastard) has to be put on hold for about six weeks. Smart business owners I know never make long-term decisions during the holidays. You’re always negotiating at a disadvantage.

Holiday season means a depressing realization. This would be the realization that no matter how good the year was, no matter how hard we worked, no matter what goals we accomplished and what dragons we slayed, the year is over and a new year is beginning. And you’re only as good as the last thing you do. The slate is clean and, come the day after New Year’s we’re going to have to drag our sorry asses out of bed and start from square one again. More meetings, more orders, more running around, more problems, more headaches, more of the same. Do this for twenty years and see how excited you’ll be on the day after new year’s.

And finally, holiday season means that stupid Paul McCartney song. No, business owners are not having a “wonderful Christmas time.” Turn that damn thing off. And can’t we get just a little work done around here before December 25th? Please?

Humbug! Oh, fine… have a good holiday!

A version of this column appeared on Phillymag.com.

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How US Businesses Can Succeed in India in 2015 – blogs.hbr.org (blog)

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On January 26, 2015, President Obama will become the first sitting U.S. President to visit India twice. Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last September, the U.S.-India Business Council found that its large company members were prepared to invest $40 billion into India by 2017. This at a time when Brazil’s economy is stuttering, Vladimir Putin’s expansionism has made Russia a pariah, and the rich world is looking for someone other than China to love. In the hyperbole of online media, one headline reads, India is the last BRIC Standing.

The U.S.-India love first peaked in July 2008 when India’s government of the time risked its very survival in support of a nuclear energy deal led by Washington. But both trade and political alignment lumbered slowly forward until the current quarter and many American executives had become flustered with their India initiatives.

Until now.

Today there appears to a second gold rush to India. Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Douglas Leone of Sequoia Capital, told the Economic Times of India in October, “We could not be more thrilled. We don’t have 25-30 category leaders in the United States; we don’t have [as many] in China right now, but we have it in India.” In the same month SoftBank of Japan committed to investing $10 billion into India over the next several years and CEO Masayoshi Son proved his seriousness by pouring the first billion into an Indian e-commerce company (Snapdeal) and a car-sharing service (Olacabs).

It’s not just frothy internet startups that are doing well in India today. Boeing India’s Dennis Swanson told Business Week that he expects to sign a new strategic partnership with an Indian company in 2015. Boeing is America’s largest exporter and the only American defense contractor to have crossed $2 billion in sales to India. America’s largest insurer, Allstate, announced plans to invest $1 billion in its India operations. Domino’s Pizza declared that they sell more pies in India than any other country other than the United States.

Federal and state government officials have also lined up to promote their respective causes in New Delhi, from Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Hundreds of lesser known companies, organizations and officials have joined the scramble. And we expect that President Obama’s visit will spark a further acceleration of business interest in India.

While some companies will do very well in India, we expect many others to be disappointed. But it won’t be “India’s fault,” in our view. In June 2013, Dallas-based Mary Kay exited from India after six years and over $20 million invested. At the same time Amway and L’Oreal thrived in the same market and personal care sales boomed across most of India. Earlier, GE found that it could not make a go in the appliance business in India. Abbott Laboratories of Illinois acquired Piramal Healthcare Ltd.’s branded generic-medicine unit in India for $3.7 billion in 2010, predicting it would grow at 20% a year for a decade. Two years later sales were stagnant in dollar terms.

We believe that American companies have a huge upside in India over the next several years. But they need to be alert to the following four signposts.

Choose the right India country manager: The role of country manager for India can mean many things depending on the scope of operations and the structure of an organization. First of all, headquarters needs to be clear about their vision of their role in India over the next 2-5 years and recruit to match that vision.

Sometimes, we see companies enter India with an executive who is the rough equivalent of a regional sales manager in the United States when their visions of India are much grander; he or she is typically not empowered to seize transformational opportunities in India while at the same time, his or her voice is not heard loudly enough at global headquarters. We’ve also seen the reverse, where a retained search firm convinces an American company with very modest goals for India to hire a leader used to running a thousand-person organization. In India’s class-conscious culture, such a person might struggle at having to personally perform tasks that they routinely delegated two or three layers down. They will definitely find themselves under-challenged. When they quit, the American company’s brand and reputation takes a hit in India.

We cringe at hiring processes that emphasize the ability to “communicate effectively with headquarters” over the skill of dealing with Indian companies and government officials. Of course it would be ideal to hire a manager who is equally adept in Peoria and Pune, but there is a paucity of such talent in a growing emerging market. While India is complex, it is an open society and an expatriate sent to India can learn to be effective in India, provided they have an open mind, a sense of humility, and the tenacity to manage the Indian operation for four years or more. David Mulford, U.S. Ambassador to India from 2004 to 2009, was more successful in part because his long tenure enabled him to gain trust, respect and apply his learning effectively. Many other recent ambassadors have returned to Washington in two years or less.

Prepare to adapt: Muhtar Kent, the Turkish-American CEO of the Coca-Cola Company, lived in India as a boy and now oversees a business where India is a top 10 market in case volume and where his company is investing another $5 billion. “… In India, appearances can be deceiving,” he wrote earlier this year in an essay in Re-Imagining India. “For outsiders there is always a hint of mystery. Even if you live and work there, you can never be entirely sure you understand. It is best to assume that you do not. If you come to India with some grand, pre-determined strategy or master plan, prepare to be distracted, deterred, even demoralized.”

While flexibility is important in any new market, India stretches the assumptions and belief systems of many seasoned international business people. If you and your company are not prepared to be humble and open about dealing with India, it may be best to stay home. We don’t mean to suggest that you compromise your integrity or core values or that you tolerate any corruption, but be ready to do things in India that you may not need to do in other markets. Kent goes on to say that the key to their success in India “has been learning to see the Indian market as it is, not as we wished it to be.”

In our conversations, we hear this yearning to see the Indian markets as American executives “wish it to be” from the trivial to the substantial:

• “Why can’t Indian Standard Time be nine or 10 hours ahead of EST? What is this business about nine and a half hours?”

• “What is a crore of rupees? Why can’t they count in millions and billions like everyone else?”

• “Why are there so many levels of duties, taxes and “cesses” in India?”

• “Reserve Bank permission? I never have to deal with the U.S. Federal Reserve, what is this all about?”

• “I have one distributor for all of Australia. Why do I need five in India?”

Take India as it is and you can learn to thrive. Complaining about why it is different will gain neither friends nor sales.

Value, not price: The common wisdom is that India’s buyers seek the lowest possible price and are prepared to compromise on quality. And rarely is an American product or service the low-price leader in India’s market. Add up Indian taxes and channel costs and the price of American products looks worse compared to a local player.

The reality is that usage assumptions of many imported products are not attuned to the Indian market. For example, interest rates are higher in India than the USA and credit is not easy to come by. So cash flow is king in most Indian businesses and if you can document how your product or service can improve your Indian customer’s cash flow, a high ticket price becomes much less of a factor. In the United States, a machine may be used six hours a day for five days a week. An Indian executive may want to buy the same machine and run it 16 hours a day for six or seven days a week. Low-cost Indian repair and maintenance crews can tune up the equipment at night.

American equipment is often sold bundled with a host of features, accessories and services that may have no relevance to the market in India. Many times, the product can be unbundled thoughtfully and the final configuration offered in India may not be lower cost but can preserve or even improve gross margins.

Don’t ignore governments as a customer: Other than in the defense sector, American companies have generally hesitated to engage with India’s government, fearing corruption, long sales cycles and the pressure of a low-bid tender process. Today, however, there is opportunity in government sales.

India has 29 state governments in addition to the union (central or federal) government. Some of the states and their cities have more nimble and forward-thinking officials who are committed to modernization and rapid growth and they should no longer be ignored by new entrants. These sales are decided in state capitals across the country and most American companies should choose no more than four states as initial targets. Buoyed by economic growth, New Delhi also has a lot of money to invest in infrastructure, in medical services, in technology and more. By March 2015, the Modi government will announce its new budget for fiscal year 2014-2015 and this will affect many policies and procedure followed by the central government. This will be a good time to re-assess whether India’s federal government will be a more promising market for foreign companies.

With Obama’s upcoming visit, we expect the conditions for U.S.-India activity to continue to be favorable. If you’re not rethinking your India goals, now is a good time to do so.

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Monday, December 22, 2014

Carbon consulting firm Envarrior Consulting Services sparkles – Economic Times

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AHMEDABAD: Being a first-time entrepreneur, Shailendra Singh Rao set up a carbon consulting firm that is competing and leading against other similar firms, as the market for innovation in emission-reduction is growing rapidly in India. Rao launched the carbon credit and renewable energy consultancy, Envarrior Consulting Services, in 2010 and the company, which posted a profit within a year of its operation, is now expanding rapidly.

Rao, 29, returned to India in 2008 from Dubai and was looking for a more stable sector to work in. It was then that he took a plunge into renewable energy and climate-change sector, with no technical background to support him in his job. He worked with three companies, only to lose his job in 2012, when he faced issues from the top management.

Ironically, he became an expert in the sector during his three-company stint. While unemployed, he said, he survived his initial days with the help of his sibling and ex-beau. Rao added his ex-beau’s advice and his former professor Indrasen Singh’s Rs 5 lakh seed fund helped Rao to become an entrepreneur. In August 2012, he created Envarrior Consultancy and his first office was his bedroom.

The global carbon market is expected to reach a total of $400 billion by the end of 2015 and $3 trillion by 2020 as per Point Carbon, a market analysis firm. India, with its large and diverse economy, offers a huge potential in emission-reduction market that can be harnessed and Envarrior is hopeful to capitalise this growing markets. Indian market has a few major players like EKI Energy Services, Genol Consultants, Prozeal Consulting, General Carbon, Carbon Clear and Reconnect. With established players in the market, the corporate world was highly apprehensive of a startup’s capability to deliver, as the sector has a history of high failure or delay ratio.

To differentiate from other players, Envarrior adopted two major strategies. First, outsourcing work to highly experienced experts and moving to projectbased payment to ensure high quality work with timely deliveries and second, providing fee refund as a written guarantee to its clients, where in Envarrior refunds 70 per cent of the amount. Both these strategies are generally not followed in the carbon credit consultancy segment and the refund guarantee turned out an attractive proposition for his prospective clients.

“We were confident about his inability to deliver so we made a challenging offer wherein in case if he completed the project, we would pay double the fee he quoted,” said Mukesh Jariwala, CMD of Sumilon Industries, a Rs 4,000-crore diversified group based in Surat.

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The 5 Business Stories That Made 2014 A Memorable Year – NPR

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As the year’s end approaches, economists are looking back and assessing the news stories that shaped 2014.

Though their lists may vary, most analysts are pointing to five developments that had very big impacts on the U.S. economy. These were the biggies for 2014:

Oil Prices Plunge

Oil pump jacks and storage tanks are seen Dec. 17 near Watford City, N.D. Oil prices are half what they were at the start of the year. Eric Gay/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Eric Gay/AP

No one saw this one coming. When 2014 began, a barrel of crude oil was selling for about $110. It hovered there until late spring, when the price ticked up to nearly $115.

And then, down, down, down went oil. Month after month, the price plunge continued until a barrel got below $55 this month.

Seeing oil prices cut in half has left economists stunned and rethinking their predictions for inflation. Most consumers are thrilled to see cheap gasoline, but oil-producing companies and nations are scrambling to cope.

Wage Stagnation

Shantel Walker stands outside a fast food restaurant June 19 in Brooklyn, New York. Walker, who made $8.25 per hour at a Brooklyn pizzeria, was part of a broad campaign by fast food workers to advocate for higher minimum wages. Julie Jacobson/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Julie Jacobson/AP

Despite strong profits for corporations, raises for workers remained meager.

Month after month throughout 2014, the Labor Department’s jobs report showed no meaningful increase in average hourly earnings. Congress did not raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and most employers provided only tiny pay increases for more-skilled workers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said average hourly earnings in November were $24.66, up just 51 cents from last year. Adjusted for inflation, that increase amounted to 0.8 percent for the year.

U.S. Economy Soars Above Others

A craft beer fan picks up a six-pack of Goose Island Beer Co.’s limited Black Friday release of Bourbon County Brand Stout on Nov. 26 in Chicago. Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP

The year started poorly for Americans, thanks to unusually harsh winter weather that derailed plans for building, spending and traveling. But with the spring came an economic warming.

In fact, by summer, growth was running hot. The Bureau of Economic Analysis says it advanced at an annualized 3.9 percent over July, August and September. That growth generated many more job openings, as well as new revenues that helped shrink the federal budget deficit.

Even as the U.S. economy was expanding, other nations were struggling. In Europe, Japan, China, India, Brazil and elsewhere, companies saw profits shrivel and gloom spread. Russia’s economy vaporized. As everyone else fell back, the dollar strengthened and the United States emerged as the world’s only real engine of growth.

Stocks Shoot Up; Interest Rates Don’t

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The stock market continued its long run up, with the S&P 500 stock index gaining roughly another 11 percent for the year. Those gains came as interest rates continued to cling to their historic lows.

Stock prices for existing tech companies were mixed, with investors loving Apple Inc. but moving away from the so-called cloud sector.

One thing was not mixed: Investors’ desire for shares of new companies. One example: LendingClub, an online loan marketplace, chalked up a 56 percent gain on its first day of trading.

Hack Attacks Spread Fear

James Franco (left) and Seth Rogen, stars of The Interview, arrive for the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Dec. 11. The comedy about a CIA plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was pulled from theaters after a cyberattack on Sony Pictures, the studio behind the film. The FBI said the attack was traced to the North Korean government. Jim Ruymen/UPI/Landov hide caption

itoggle caption Jim Ruymen/UPI/Landov

Whether you were a Sony executive or a Home Depot customer, 2014 was a bad year for cybersecurity. Emails got hacked and personal information was stolen, and economic havoc was heaped upon companies.

Both corporations and consumers are struggling to respond to the growing threats, but what can be done to boost security is not yet clear.

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RGAs McKay and Gitcho form consulting firm – Politico

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POLITICO Pro

By James Hohmann

12/22/14 9:35 AM EST

The Republican Governors Association’s political director and communications director are leaving the group to start their own political consulting firm.

Ken McKay and Gail Gitcho will consult for political campaigns and corporations at the newly formed McKay-Gitcho Strategies, they told POLITICO.

Story Continued Below

McKay and Gitcho first worked together in 2009 when McKay was the chief of staff at the Republican National Committee and Gitcho was press secretary under then-Chairman Michael Steele ahead of the 2010 midterm elections.

Gitcho was communications director on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. She also worked for the former Massachusetts governor in 2007-08 before spending the general election as a spokeswoman for John McCain. She also worked as then-Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-Mass.) official communications director, and, before that, on House side for the late Florida Rep. Clay Shaw.

McKay, as political director of the RGA this cycle, oversaw more than $100 million in political spending across 36 gubernatorial contests. Despite a map filled with Republican governors in Democratic-leaning states, the RGA went from controlling 29 governorships to 31 this year, picking up the blue states of Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts (an independent defeated the GOP incumbent in Alaska).

McKay specializes in helping Republicans compete in blue states. The Rhode Island native, who served in the Army for three years, managed the winning gubernatorial campaign in his home state for Republican Donald Carcieri in 2002. He served as Carcieri’s chief of staff during his first term and oversaw his reelection in 2006. McKay even served a stint as chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party.

McKay was a senior adviser for Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) before starting at the RGA. In 2010, he was a senior strategist for Rick Scott’s winning Florida gubernatorial campaign.

McKay lives in Rhode Island with his wife and three sons. Gitcho still lives in Boston, where Romney’s 2012 campaign was headquartered.

Outgoing RGA executive director Phil Cox and his Democratic counterpart, Colm O’Comartun, are forming 50-State LLC, a bipartisan consulting firm.

Paul Bennecke, a Georgia-based political consultant, will be the RGA’s new executive director.

Scott, who just won reelection in Florida, said in a statement that McKay and Gitcho will be “sorely missed” at the RGA.

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Sunday, December 21, 2014

Rick Haglund: Business leaders call for public investment over tax changes … – MLive.com

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In pushing to replace the despised Michigan Business Tax with a simplified corporate income tax, Gov. Rick Snyder said the new tax would be fairer and promote job growth.

The tax, which took effect in 2012, also gave businesses a $1.7 billion tax cut.

Business groups praised the new tax structure, which was the economic centerpiece of Snyder’s 2010 election campaign.

But a recent survey of Southeast Michigan business owners and executives found the tax overhaul has had little impact on hiring and wages.

Seventy-three percent of the 300 employers questioned said the new business tax has had no influence or only a minor influence in their decisions to hire more workers or boost wages.

Lansing-based polling firm EPIC-MRA conducted the survey for Crain’s Detroit Business and the Detroit law firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn.

Business owners and executives in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties, the state’s largest economic region, were queried in the mid-November survey.

Their views on the state’s corporate income tax likely reflect what economists have told me for years: state taxes are too small a share of overall business costs to play much of a role in job growth.

Other factors, including market demand for their goods and services, regulatory and health care costs and the overall state of the economy are more important considerations in hiring decisions.

The top concern of businesses surveyed isn’t taxes, religious freedom, gay rights or even road funding. No, their biggest worry involves keeping existing customers and finding new ones.

That response indicates that while the state’s economy is much improved from just a few years ago, businesses are still scrapping for every dollar of revenue.

But despite the view by most businesses surveyed that the change in state business taxation isn’t much of a factor in job growth, many said state government can play an important role in boosting the economy.

Respondents said providing funding for worker retraining to fill available jobs was the most important thing the state could do to promote job growth.

Business owners and executives also said there are some tax issues that are important for job growth.

Their second-highest priority was tax incentives “specifically aimed at creating new jobs and preserving existing ones.”

Michigan eliminated business tax incentives under the Snyder reforms. It now gives upfront grants and loans to companies that add jobs in the state, but not for job retention.

Respondents also said there are a number of actions policymakers should take to improve the overall economy and quality of life in Michigan.

Among them are greater support for K-12 education, improving roads, getting a new bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor built and providing post-bankruptcy financial support for Detroit.

Such public investments are generally more important for sustained economic growth than changes in state taxes.

Email Rick Haglund at haglund.rick@gmail.com

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Unusual office-furniture business expanding, hiring – Wausau Daily Herald

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Wausau Daily Herald

Unusual office-furniture business expanding, hiring

Wausau Daily Herald

Beyond the Office Door sells to businesses of all sizes across the U.S. and Canada, but because it hasn’t had a high-profile local presence, Knighton, 31, said the company has nearly zero local customers. But he said the move to the bigger location and …

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